ELLEN STAFFORD is a dancer, choreographer, and certified teacher of the Alexander Technique living and working in the Greenfield area of Pittsburgh. She received a BFA in Dance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in May 2008, and has studied dance with the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School, Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance. She has performed in the work of choreographers Robert Moses, Cheryl Chaddick, Erika Randall, and Philip Johnston. In 2007 and 2008 she performed in the Champaign-Urbana Boneyard Arts Festival as part of Kirstie Simson’s improvisation ensembles. In August 2012 Ms. Stafford founded Geeksdanz, a modern dance company dedicated to the creation and performance of “geeky” dance works. For more info on Geeksdanz, visit www.geeksdanz.org.


Ms. Stafford received her Alexander Technique certification from the Urbana Center for the Alexander Technique in the spring of 2011, where she trained with third-generation teachers Joan and Alex Murray. The Murrays are best known for introducing the developmental movement work of Australian anthropologist Raymond A. Dart into their teaching style, and developmental movement consequently plays a large part in Ms. Stafford’s teaching style as well. She has been known to ogle over babies just learning to crawl and marvel aloud at their wonderful use. Ms. Stafford is a member of AmSAT, the American Society for the Alexander Technique. For more info on her Alexander practice, please visit www.pghforwardandup.com.


In her spare time, Ms. Stafford makes and sells sterling silver jewelry on her Etsy shop, The Relic Shoppe.